A 65-year-old man will be charged in court on 3 April 2024 for cheating and forgery related offences in relation to grants under the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme – Company Attachments (“SGUP-CA”) offered by Workforce Singapore (“WSG”).
The SGUP-CA was a full-time attachment programme where mid-career individuals were attached to a host organisation for up to six months to gain meaningful industry-relevant skills and experience. Host organisations that took on such individuals, also referred to as trainees, received government funding for training allowances provided to these individuals. WSG appointed Singapore Business Federation (“SBF”) as its programme partner to administer the grant. The programme ceased in March 2022.
At the time of the incident, the man was a sole-proprietor of a host organisation. He was alleged to have attempted to cheat SBF into disbursing grants amounting to $8,901.90 in October 2021, by deceiving SBF that a trainee had received training allowance and performed work for the host organisation when this was not the case. He was also alleged to have submitted forged documents to SBF in his claim submission. The grants were withheld after SBF found irregularities in the claim submission.
The man will be charged in court with the offences of attempted cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code (read with Section 512 of the Penal Code), and forgery for the purpose of cheating under Section 468 of the Penal Code. Both offences carry an imprisonment term of up to 10 years, and a fine.
The Police takes a serious view against the abuse of Government grants and offenders will be dealt with severely in accordance with the law.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
02 April 2024 @ 3:45 PM